KUALA LUMPUR: The International Shariah Research Academy for Islamic Finance (Isra) introduced a new and improved version of its Islamic Finance Knowledge Repository Portal (I-FIKR) FIKR 2.0 at the International Shariah Scholars Forum 2018, here, today.
The portal was launched by Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik. The forum was organised by Isra and the Islamic Research and Training Institute to mark Isra’s 10th anniversary.
Isra executive director Professor Dr Mohamad Akram Laldin said I-FIKR was a one-stop portal that provided authentic resources and materials related to Islamic finance.
He said the portal, which was first launched by former Bank Negara Malaysia governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz in 2012, was mainly intended to host Isra’s publications, but it was revamped recently to meet growing demand for reference material in Islamic finance.
“In line with the demands and technological digitisation, we decided to revamp the portal to make it more informative, interactive and the most efficient one-stop portal for all Islamic financing references,” he said.
Akram said the portal would provide access to local and trustworthy international Islamic financing materials such as financial fatwas and research papers.
“Anything and everything that you want to know about Islamic finance, including the terms and conditions, are all in there,” he said, adding that references for work papers could also be obtained from the portal.
Akram said Isra was in the midst of setting up live chats on the portal to allow the public to post queries or topics for discussion.
Datuk Dr Mohd Daud Bakar, chairman of the Shariah Advisory Council of Bank Negara Malaysia, urged the public to use the platform to increase their knowledge and wisdom.
“A unique feature of I-FIKR is the ontology which maps out the entire Islamic finance industry, identifying the major branches, which are then subdivided into particular topics,” he said adding that it showed the types, properties and interrelationships between the sectors.
He said publications, news articles, columns, fatwas and other materials on the portal were connected on the basis of this rigorous and subtle design.